Share this with

MIDDLESBROUGH appear doomed and there is a good chance one of their North East rivals will be sunk with them by the time the Premier League relegation drama unfolds by 5pm Sunday.

Metro caught up with Martyn McFadden, editor of Sunderland fanzine A Love Supreme, and Newcastle fanzine The Mag’s editor Mark Jensen to see what the fans think ahead of the battle to beat the drop.

WHAT’S YOUR CHANCES OF SURVIVAL?

Martyn McFadden:I thought when Sunderland lost at West Brom we wouldn’t win another game this season. Our chances lie with Newcastle and Hull, not in us winning. If we stay up it will be because there are clubs worse than us, not because of us.

Mark Jensen:Newcastle have a decent chance. I’m confident if we win we’ll stay up and even if we get a draw I think there is a good chance. Whatever team United put out they have a decent chance of a result against Hull.

Advertisement

Advertisement

WHAT WOULD RELEGATION MEAN TO THE FANS?

MM:The last two times it was a foregone conclusion. This time people would be really annoyed as we had the money to spend.

We thought we needed a good board to back us and a good manager and we had those things at the start of the season. But after Keane left it went from bad to worse.

Fans will be more angry than when we were rock bottom because then the players were not good enough but at least they fought and battled.

Some of the mercenaries at the club now…if they’d shown 90 per cent effort we’d be sitting tenth.

MJ:I’m old enough to have seen it happen all before but everything will revolve around what happens with Alan Shearer if he stays, and I’m confident he will.

Going down and having Shearer in charge is a better scenario than staying up with another succession of poor managers.

You need the right man in charge – we would still have been in this position or worse if Allardyce was still here.

WHEN DID IT START TO GO WRONG?

MM:Things were going wrong before Roy Keane walked out. He based his whole career on never jumping ship and never giving up so it was strange that he left at the first sign of trouble as he felt he couldn’t motivate the players. I am disappointed with him as a person for doing that.

MJ:When the club messed up and allowed Kevin Keegan to walk away.

Advertisement

Advertisement

We then had a run of winnable games in December that we drew and looking at the fixture list ahead, it has been a dawning realisation since.

LOW POINT OF THE SEASON?

MM:West Brom away, when we lost 3-0. They have the poorest defence in the league but we didn’t bother our a**e against them. Even Newcastle beat them.

MJ:Basically the feeling that it has all been thrown away. We started with a draw at Old Trafford then a win and it looked like we were moving on. We didn’t think it would be a struggle.WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR RIVALS TO STAY UP AT THE EXPENSE OF HULL?

MM:Is that a serious question? I’d just like to see Newcastle suffer and can live without the derbies for a couple of seasons.

Anyway, Phil Brown is a Sunderland fan and a nice bloke and overall Hull deserve to stay up. They’ve added something new to the Premier League.

MJ:There is only a small minority who would like to see Sunderland stay up. Personally, I only care about Newcastle but it would be the dream scenario to stay up and see them go down.

WHICH PLAYER DESERVES TO STAY UP?

MM:Danny Collins. He is the least glamorous player in our team – the equivalent of a Nicky Butt at Manchester United – but a perfect pro and player of the year the last two seasons.

That’s the problem though, with the amount of quality in our squad, players who have played in World Cups, that is ridiculous.

Advertisement

MJ:By a mile, our two best players have been Sebastien Bassong and Habib Beye. They’ve both been excellent and, along with Shay Given who has now gone, have done more than anyone.

WHO SHOULD BE IN CHARGE NEXT SEASON?

MM:When Roy left, it would have been the perfect opportunity to give Slaven Bilic the job, a young hungry manager.

In an ideal world it would be Martin O’Neill but I’ve been saying that for ten years, he could establish us as a top-ten club.

Ricky Sbragia, it’s not in his character to be a top manager which is a shame as he is a really great character. He is not a natural leader. I’m sure he’ll have a long and successful career in football but not as Sunderland manager.MJ:Shearer, without a doubt.In the current circumstances, he can offer something no-one else can. There might be better managers but there is not a better manager for Newcastle.